ADAM-Anchorage Data: Are They Representative?

This paper presents the results of a study designed to assess the representativeness of realized samples of recent arrestees selected for the Arrestee Drug Abuse Monitoring (ADAM) program in Anchorage, Alaska. Because one of the most important goals of the ADAM program is to produce scientific information on the prevalence of alcohol and drug use behaviors among arrestees that is generalizable to an entire local arrestee population, establishing the representativeness of realized samples (or isolating inherent biases) is an essential first step to meaningful use of these data to address locally defined problems. In order to determine the reasonableness of inferences grounded in realized samples of ADAM respondents, an analysis was done comparing various characteristics between each stage of the sample selection process including the census of eligible arrestee population, the designed ADAM arrestee sample, arrestees available for interview, arrestees actually interviewed (“realized” sample), and arrestees that provided urine sample (“realized” sample). If the realized samples are similar to the census we can have a greater degree of confidence in our capacity to describe the population of Anchorage arrestees using ADAM data. Also, if it happens that departures are detected between realized samples and the arrestee census we are better positioned to condition the inferences made by integrating these discerned biases into our conclusions.Abstract / The ADAM-Anchorage Program / ADAM Sample Attrition / Representativeness of the Realized Male Arrestee Samples / Representativeness of the Realized Female Samples / Conclusions / Appendix [supplementary tables and figure

Reading Adam Smith: Understanding the Misinterpretations & the Fallacy of the Adam Smith Problem

This paper investigates Adam Smith’s intricate vision of human motivation and seeks to expose the fallacy of the “Adam Smith Problem”. Through an expansive study of the famed economist’s two most prominent works, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (WN) and The Theory of Moral Sentiments (TMS), I will show that the two are perfect complements of one other and that Adam Smith did not set down in one place his views on the nature of man. Adam Smith saw man for what he truly is, dominated by selfinterest but not without concern for others, able to reason but not necessarily able to reach the best or right conclusion while all the time seeing one’s own actions through a veil of self-delusion. WN and TMS are equally important books, and in order to understand the economics and philosophy of Adam Smith, both must be read and studied

Adam Smith

Smith proposes an account of how languages developed. He did so not as historian, but as a philosopher with a special concern about how a nominalist could account for general terms. Names for individuals are taken as fairly unproblematic – say ‘Thames’ and ‘Avon’ for each of the respective rivers. But whence the word ‘river,’ applicable to more than one, if all that exist are particular objects? Smith’s view is not the usual one, according to which people deploy a powerful ability to abstract mentally, and subsequently affix a label to a general concept. He resisted this because he granted that such robust mental processes themselves presuppose the use of words. Rather, what holds the class together is the word itself, a “single appellation.

Enhancing Transportation Education through On-line Simulation using an Agent-Based Demand and Assignment Model

This research explores the effectiveness of using simulation as a tool for enhancing classroom learning in the Civil Engineering Department of the University of Minnesota at Twin Cities. The authors developed a modern transportation planning software package, Agent-based Demand and Assignment Model (ADAM), that is consistent with our present understanding of travel behavior, that is platform independent, and that is easy to learn and is thus usable by students. An in-class project incorporated ADAM and the performance of this education strategy was evaluated through pre-class survey, post-class survey, scores in the quiz focusing on travel demand modeling and final scores. Results showed that ADAM effectively enhanced students' self-reported understanding of transportation planning and their skills of forming opinions, evaluating projects and making judgments. Students of some learning styles were found to benefit more than others through simulation-based teaching strategy. Findings in this research could have significant implications for future practice of simulation-based teaching strategy.